I got a new Cambridge Audio amp a few years back now, the Sonata DR30+ (great machine, definitely reccomend it to anyone).

However, about a month ago it stopped playing out of the speakers. No warning or anything, just the next time I turned it on it wasn't working. I'm still using the same speakers and cables on a different system, and everything seems to work and play fine through the headphone slot. Literally everything works but it won't play game with the speakers. I've tried different speakers and cables, different inputs and everything, but that seems to be the sticking point. I'm using a very old system at the moment which means I need to change the aux cables every time I want to use a diferent seperate (not to mention the sound quality being less than ideal).

Is this a common problem, or one that would be easy to fix at home? I'm at a loss at the moment, because the only place I've found (in Brighton) that will do HiFi repais is Richer sounds and they charge £40 just to look at it. That's probably not bad value but if it's something minor that I can sort at home I'd much rather (money's tight at the moment).

you must feel negected no one answering post . I know how it feels even get mine deleted .

Anyway : Can i make a suggestion as no one else is. I fully understand the £40 for opening the box prediciment

Have you got a little computer shop near you? Go in have a word. These people are Generaly very clever and have fault finding equipment

We have a shop near us run By Polish Brothers and they done some super work on a Nad c320 amp i bought on Ebay . Five new transitors . Told me how much each one cost. The price ranged from £5 to £20 and they charged me £20 labour charge I did not mind paying that at all.

For what its worth. I read your post again. About the speakers. The Nad had that problem. The guys showed me how they rectified this. But do not go crazy and try this yourself if you do not know what your doing. In the Nad C320 There is a Red box its very small Forgive me. I Do not no a resitor from a transitor ok. But they took this out the board and replaced it and the speakers worked again. They said this item is common and very available. I remeber now how the speaker problem started. The headphone socket when you unplugged the headphones only one speaker would work . You have to push the headphone plug back in the socket and move it about withdraw it and if you were lucky both speakers worked once more. Now the cause of this was the Red box needed replacing. the red box cost pennies ..

As I previously owned the Azur 640C CD player and upgraded to the Azur 650C, I thought I'd make fellow consumers and audiophiles aware of some serious problems regarding the Cambridge Audio company.

While the actual sound quality of previous CD player models -- bass response, spatial separation, imaging, etc. -- is of considerably high quality, it is not worth the risk (or the price) to take a chance on these products failing with nothing short of dismal customer support upon that happening.

The light which illuminates the liquid crystal display on my Azur 650C CD player -- the model preceding the 651 -- flickered and went out altogether, rendering the display completely black and unreadable; the unit and the remote still worked.

When I tried to contact Cambridge Audio, they were very slow to respond and even then only directed me to their U.S. distributor, a company called Audio Plus Services in upstate New York. The individual at Cambridge Audio did indicate that there were a number of other components with the same problem, indicating manufacturing fault and/or mechanical failure.

Audio Plus Services were contacted on three separate occasions with no reply; even a phone call to their receptionist resulted only in the option to leave voicemail. Eventually someone did contact me, indicating that if the unit in question was beyond the two-year warranty period, repair would have to be paid for, despite the obvious mechanical fault of multiple components with the same problem.

Another SERIES OF ATTEMPTS to reach Cambridge Audio rendered no response. Only after sadly and dishearteningly having to threaten legal action was a response received. (The entire process described thus far took place over an absurdly long two-week period.)

THIS is the quality of customer service when purchasing a so-called high-end audio product from Cambridge Audio.

The eventual response from Cambridge Audio -- who apparently were wholly and completely unconcerned with both their own deplorable customer service as well as that of their U.S. distributor, Audio Plus Services -- was simply to say 'a small number of reported instances of an issue in a production run... does not constitute a failure in design or acknowledged production fault.'

If that's what Cambridge Audio actually believes -- despite failure happening in multiple units through no fault of their purchasers -- then clearly they are manufacturing a product or products (at high-end prices to consumers no less) that they DON'T EXPECT TO WORK CORRECTLY FOR ANY LONGER THAN THREE OR FOUR YEARS. The corresponding consumer might reasonably expect a considerably longer period of trouble-free use considering the price(s) paid.

A cursory review of the internet via any given search engine will reveal postings by other customers concerning product failure with Cambridge Audio amplifiers as well -- another illustration of lack of quality control -- and the same horrendous absence of consideration for their customers. While no one expects a 'lifetime' warranty, one would expect a company to 'make good' on defective products, if only to do the right thing and maintain good business principles. They may say they're 'sorry' at Cambridge Audio, but they don't address the problem(s).

Obviously there are serious quality control issues as well as questionable business principles with Cambridge Audio. Regardless of how many units may have failed, Cambridge Audio has failed in customer service, consideration for their customers, and succeeded with only atrocious business policies.